FishHawk Ranch author Martha O’Sullivan.

FishHawk Ranch author Martha O’Sullivan released her fifth book in February after finally pursuing her lifelong dream of becoming an author.

Her latest book, Sierra Falls, takes place, like her other books, at Lake Tahoe, California, and follows a brokenhearted widow falling into unexpected love. All of O’Sullivan’s contemporary romance books conclude with a happy ending, just as the books she likes reading do.

“I write a lot of books that I liked reading when I was growing up,” she said.

O’Sullivan, who was born in Chicago, Illinois, moved to Florida, where she is living out her own happy ending with her husband and daughters.

“I’ve always liked the central love story and happily-ever-after ending,” she said.

She had always wanted to be an author and finally began writing her first book — Second Chance — in 2020. Since then, she has self-published five books in the span of four-and-a-half years. All of her books are based at Lake Tahoe, which O’Sullivan visited over a decade before she set her first novel in the city. She said the biggest challenge has been publishing her work and marketing it.

“I gave up for a while, to be honest,” she admitted.

But she turned to self-publishing and now has her stand-alone novels available as e-books and paperbacks. She writes a lot on her lanai at her home in FishHawk Ranch, something she said helps inspire her and prevent writer’s block. While her first three books — Second Chance, Chance Encounter and Last Chance — are a trilogy, they can be read in any order. Her fourth book is holiday-themed, titled Christmas in Tahoe.

O’Sullivan isn’t working on her next book yet, but she is focusing on marketing her current novels.

“I definitely had a huge learning curve,” she said.

She attended college for public relations but is self-taught when it comes to writing books.

“Writing books and getting them out is probably, next to being a mom, the greatest learning experience of my life,” she said.

O’Sullivan’s five books are available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Books-A-Million and Kindle, among other sites.

To learn more about O’Sullivan or to purchase her contemporary romance novels, visit www.marthaosullivan.com.

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Lily Belcher
Lily Belcher is a writer for the Osprey Observer. She started as an intern in the summer of 2020 and has continued to write for the Osprey Observer since completing her internship. Lily is majoring in mass communications at the University of South Florida and is a staff writer for the university’s paper, The Oracle. She enjoys writing about local nonprofit organizations and community role models who have made an impact on her hometown.